Wildcats open centennial season with 120 points over Emory

Boris Meno and Jason Richards recorded double-doubles while Stephen Curry scored a game-high 27 points to lead Davidson to a 120-56 victory over D-III Emory in the season's opener. The 120 points were the highest Davidson basketball output since the 2002-2003 season when the Wildcats dropped 125 on Washington & Jefferson.

The Wildcats overmatched Emory in most aspects of the game and they never let up. Davidson opened up a 20-2 lead in the first five minutes of the game behind seven quick points from Thomas Sander.

Emory struggled all night with the 'Cats two-man full court pressure and trapping defense. Trying to beat the Davidson press, the Eagles penetrated to the paint only to find the Wildcats in wait. Davidson finished with nine blocks and twelve steals on the contest.

Meno finished the game with 12 points and 13 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. Richards also recorded a double-double, tallying 14 points and 10 assists in only 20 minutes of play. Richards finished last season second in the country with 7.32 assists per game.

Curry also had a big game as he scored 27 points on 10-15 shooting, including 5-8 from three-point land. The sensational sophomore had a game-high three blocks, including one on a three-point attempt that started a transition scoring opportunity.

Brendan McKillop scored his first points in a Wildcat uniform as the freshman converted three out of seven three-point attempts for a total of 11 points. Bryant Barr scored 17 points off the bench, hitting five three-pointers. It was Barr's second-highest career point output. He scored a game-high 21 points against The Citadel at the end of last season.

The biggest storyline of this game, however, was the homecoming of Jason Zimmerman and Matt McKillop. The first-year head and assistant coaches of Emory obviously have very strong ties to Davidson, and despite the enjoyment of getting to open their coaching careers in a familiar environment, the game seemed pretty mentally and emotionally challenging for all those in Eagles colors.

After the game, lingerers witnessed a touching scene at half-court. Coach Zimmerman's son, wearing an Emory basketball t-shirt, stood on the empty court with tears welling up. Coach McKillop came up behind him, put his arm around him and whispered something in his ear as father, Jason, and Matt McKillop looked on.

The Eagles will now go back and looked to challenge in the D-III UAA, while Davidson looks forward to their biggest game of the season against the top-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels on Wednesday.

Davidson 120 Emory 56

-Live blogging will continue tonight on this thread. I will have some other responsibilities so the pace will not be as frenetic, but updates will be posted at least at the media timeouts with a game story to follow.

-This game will be the coaching debut of Emory's Jason Zimmerman and Matt McKillop, both of whom played for Coach McKillop at Davidson.

-The Eagles are a very small team with no player taller than 6'6" and they play in the D-III UAA conference. Emory is led by lone returning starter Spiros Ferderigos who averaged 17.6 points per game last season.

-The team also features twin brothers John and Ryan Kresse, the sons of former College of Charleston coaching legend John Kresse Sr. The Kresse twins went to my high school in Charleston and led the Porter-Gaud Cyclones to three straight state championships in their four years in high school. Other famous Porter-Gaud alumni include Jared Cochrane, a former Wildcat football and basketball player, and Stephen Colbert from the Colbert Report.

-Game time will be at 8 p.m. to partially accomodate the semifinals of the women's soccer Southern Conference tournament which Davidson is hosting and participating in. The soccer team is ranked #10 in the Southeast region and will be taking on rival Furman at 7 p.m.

-You can get all the latest Wildcat coverage by going to www.davidsonwildcats.com and clicking on the Multimedia tab on the right side of the screen.

-UPDATE: Men's basketball replica jerseys are now on sale through the Davidson College Bookstore. You can go to this site to order replica Stephen Curry jerseys.
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Here we go here at Belk Arena.

Matt McKillop is all business as they announce the Emory starting lineups.

In other quick hits, UNC Greensboro is hanging tough with Georgia Tech.
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18:10 D 10 E 0
Davidson off to a quick start with a Sander 2 and 3. The Wildcat crowd is into it and Davidson is rolling. It looks the nerves from Wednesday have been shaken. Emory is just so small.
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15:26 D 18 E 2
The Wildcats are rolling with some stifling defense. Meno with two blocks in a row on the interior and the two man press is slowing Kresse down. Lovedale with another block. I'm surprised Emory keeps going inside. There's so much good Wildcat stuff happening right now, I don't know what to recap.

In SoCon news, UNC G just upset Ga Tech.
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14:15 D 20 E 2
First media timeout and Matt's old frat mates are yelling "who's your daddy?" All kidding aside, this must be a really tough game for Emory to take. Every pass is getting deflected, the Wildcats are attacking the paint insatiably and challenging for every rebound. Sander leads all scorers with seven right now.
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10:49 D 28 E 7
Jason Richards scores to put his game total at eight. While it should go without saying, Davidson is attacking the paint very effectively and both Boris and Thomas are making some nice shots after receiving the ball with their backs to the basket.
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8:20 D 37 E 11
Wildcats looking good on the break as the Wildcats keep breaking Emory down and finding the open man. Curry hits a three and now has 11 points on the game. Wildcats dominant all around. The fans are warming up for Wednesday.
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4:55 D 45 E 17
Since this game will count in the official stats for the season, you have to (well, you don't, but I am) thinking about some stats for national standing. Curry has 13 points right now, but even more impressive are his three blocks so far (including one on a three-point attempt). Jason Richards already has six assists. And it doesn't look like the Wildcats will be letting up any time soon. Rossiter has been a lion inside so far with a few great offensive rebounds over three or four defenders.

We'll have to see whether Civi will score in double digits tonight.
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3:49 D 51 E 17
Whip out your video cameras, Boris Meno just got some huge dunks on the fast break including on off-the-glass alley-oop from Stephen. The frenetic pace of this game is really wearing Emory down. Kevin Cary's prediction of 100 points is looking pretty off right now. I'd say it will be more like 120.
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Halftime D 65 E 25
Brendan McKillop gets his first points of his career with a three from the corner, and the Danimal (Dan Nelms) enters the game. First half stats and thoughts coming up.

Stephen Curry leads all scorers with 15. He also has 5 assists to go with 6 rebounds and three blocks. Meno has a nice line once again with 12 first-half points to go along with seven rebounds and two blocks. Two of Boris's field goals came off rim-rattling dunks in the fast break.

In fact, this game has a seen nearly a season's worth of Davidson highlights. Steph has made some pretty moves around the basket, Archambault had a big dunk and Boris and Andrew have made some spectacular blocks. Thankfully for Davidson, members of the newly formed student broadcasting network are filming from the sidelines for their weekly TV show.
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16:40 D 77 E 34
And Stephen Curry is wanting those threes now. He just hit two in a row and now has 24 points on the game. Despite 40+ lead, Davidson is definitely still jacking up shots early and playing fast.
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15:28 D 81 E 36
If there were any doubts about Davidson deserving to be talked about in ESPN magazine as a national sleeper, this game should pretty much erase all of those. Another long pass for an alley-oop and smothering defense under the basket.

The only thing that looks semi-ugly on this night is Will Archambault's haircut.
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11:20 D 92 E 41
The pace of the game has really slowed and turned into a half-court slugfest with lots of fouls, out of bounds calls and the like. I'm sure that McKillop would like to get us running again so that the subs like lil McKillop, Barr and Archambault can get experience running and converting on the break. Curry subs back in on the official timeout...he already has four threes and probably wants one or two more. On some possessions, he has just sat in the corner and yelled for the ball as it made the rotation. Then he still hit the three despite being completely guarded.
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7:57 D 105 E 45
And a Steve Rossiter three makes Kevin Cary look like a genius. The Wildcats break into 100 points and there are still 8 minutes remaining. While Curry, Meno and Richards might be riding the bench from here on, I wouldn't sleep on McKillop and Rossiter putting up some big points from here on out.
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3:35 D 114 E 52
Bryant Barr has put together some big three point shots to keep building the Wildcat lead. We still haven't seen walk-on Mike Schmidt or Ben Allison, who is in street clothes on the bench. Nelms looked a bit overwhelmed with his few touches in the paint. He'll need to use his height more effectively.
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Final D 120 E 56
And it looks like my 120 prediction wasn't that bad. The Wildcats end this thing with a big dunk by Dan Nelms and the students chanting "we want the tar heels." I'll be back with a postgame story a little later.